Using Goats to Control Brush Regrowth on Fuelbreaks.Pdf
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Fores? Service Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station Genera! Technical Repot PSW-59 u< Br Fi Lisfe 1 * % Goats ate first-year regrowth of chai California bush buckwheat, and Ea< scarcely touched 5-year-old plants of bedding grounds or other places of c mahogany and scrub oak were most 5-year-old brush stands. For fuelbreaks, Spanish goats have Angoras. They are larger, and better ators, and the marketable kids are I what better browsers than Angoras, With good feed, and intensive mans be more profitable, however. Recommended stocking rates for | (0.2 to 1.2 ha) per goat the first yeai ding on the amount of regrowth, thereafter. Larger numbers of goats periods. Stocking rates that continu managers, land manager Firecitizens agree on "fuelbreaks" control wildfire. Fuelbreaks are sti or around communities, or other value, 200 to 400 ft (60 to 120 m) w at risk determine the intensity of fi Low volume, low growing vegetati intense fire is generally maintained c Accounts about goats damagi Pacific Islands are found in the li Vries 1979; Coblentz 1976, 197 Dombois 1973; Vries 1979; Vrie: Goats have been on the Channel California coast for at least 150 y have sheep (Coblentz 1980, Minni< released on the Channel and other 1 and intc plorations or settlement, they had no natural enemies. To pr of native plants and to accomplish i threatened and endangered plants Navy removed about 20,000 gOc Island between 1973 and mid-1981 remained for later removal effort was discontinued even where ic 1 present under thick brush (fig. 2). As Angora goats grazed at a hea 1 Research Station in Sonora, Te understory developed (Merrill and Africa, grassland being invaded b\ or 1625/ha) was burned off, then si end of the season when cattle were tion did not differ between plot without (Trollope 1974). Our experience then and that re] that goats under proper stocking \v damaging the herbaceous vegetatic P/onfc ^$M f *& A green herbaceous plant the gc close utilization was wild peony (Pa< Telegraph weed (Heterotheca granc low palatability rating, even though A communal maintained group j bara Ranger District, Los Padres 1* years (Brotherhood of the Sun 197- Plants browsed yearlong, but and with winter, along dry j (Quercus dumosa), coast in chamise (Adenostoma fasdcui buckwheat (Eriogonum /as bloom), manzanita (during t sagebrush (Artemisia californ, tnvnn (Hptprnmplex arhutifnliri twins {or sometimes triplets) with gr the Angoras. Kid crops in either bn under poor range conditions to 15 plane of nutrition (Dollahite 1972, N Taylor 1976, Spurlock and others ; Caialina Island averaged less than c and only 1.2 young per birth due level in areas of high goal density (( that are undernourished tend to r absorption (Spurlock and others 19" nia during one winter on poor brow; refused to claim their kids, or abanc of 100 percent is suggested as a wiidland conditions. Which type of goat then for Spurlock and others (1978) suggests without excessive, continuous brov Merrill and Taylor (1976) suggest f (12 to 20/ha) for 30-day periods on the San Juan Basin Research Cen stocked at oak regrowth was eight j 25 days, with a second browsing The stocking rate was reduced each time 95 percent of the sprouts wer 1975). In southern California, 400 for 2 days stripped the leaves ar palatable species making up 80 r> dense shrub cover. Less palatable wood rnanzanita, and bush buckw' percent of the available browse- after available leaves and small t from the palatable shrubs (Green < management standards, and the nee herders with well-trained dogs to keq to prevent losses. Such skills are in si Father-more, herding without supple ac pensive for the herd owner and with the kid-nanny relationship and To keep the goats within boui necessary to use net fence or sped h ranges or pastures fenced for cattle three to five, usually four, barbed wi for cattle, but they will not confin< feed is not to the goats' liking. In ^ Counties, the center of Californij recommendation is for woven win 12-inch (15- by 30-cm) mesh. A barb and one or two above the mesh. A /I 1 ^,\ tntni V,*;,rkt IP rtinnacte^ Tl mature brush, they are less inclined in search of better feed. Other Considerations In addition to the problems of h plying water, other problems as: goats in mountainous areas includ Roads are usually not good, i passable by snowfall or hea mountain operations in soui usually be set for the period A At other times, uncertainty in tions. In northern California, On March 12, 1976, 435 nannies the Goleta ranch arrived on the De Cleveland National Forest, at about lion. During ihe second week of Apr dropped snow and rain, and the cold Nineteen kids and 8 nannies died e\ trailer home was filled with kids. On and sleet for I / 2 hour, and 20 to 30 1 died or had left them had to be bo died. A tropical storm caused intense ra into San Diego County on Augus drowned in a flooded creek, and 24 1 the brush later. In early October, thr ing stormy weather. The total 1976 loss on the Cleveland National Fore Tree tobacco has long been recog to all classes of 1 tially poisonous County Livestock Department Malmsten 1942). Tree tobacco has deformities in calves when the m< ground tree tobacco during the f leaves ai (Keeler 1979). The young dangerous parts of the plant, and th in canyon bottoms and disturbed sil ilia. Fortunately, they are distastefu Catalina Island that are heavily b tobacco was utilized only when otr depleted, and then only sparingly (C Seeds and young leaves of Jimse poisoning if this plant is eaten to exc or see plant are dangerous. The burs Demand for young goats is considi Easter, and a demand for goats is wii of Hispanic and other Mediterrar barbecuing is becoming more popu Young goats are sold as "cabrito,' mature goats as "chevon." Meat fr manly used for sausage (Dollahite 1 In California, November and Eto to sell goats, and spring a good time I owner of goats on the Cleveland 1 1978-79. Spotted or mottled goats a buyers, whereas brown or white a (Beene 1979). P; Goodin, Joe R. eds. Wildland shrub tion. Gen. Tech. Rep. INT-1. Ogden, IT Range Experiment Station, Forest Sei Agriculture; 1972; 414-427. Pearson, Erwin W.; Caroline, Milton. Pn livestock losses in central Texas. J. Rai 1981 November. Plaister, Robert E.; Dal Porto, Norman. brash areas. Amador County, CA: Calif. Plumb, T. R. Sprouting of chaparral by I July. Tech. Paper 57. Berkeley, CA: P; Range Experiment Station, Forest Sei Agriculture; 1961. 12 p. Raven, Peter H. A flora of San Clemen 5(3):289-347; 1963 April 15. Sampson, Arthur W. Plant succession on northern California. Bull. 685. Berkele Stn.; 1944. 143 p. Sampson, Arthur W.; Malmsten, Harry E MY QUARTER CENTURY OF of that convention )ne of the most spectacular features ot Ohio debate betwixt Gen. Tom Ewmg i the great of New York, on the financial I Governor Dorsheimer a veritable battle of giants, nk of the platform. It was conclave was lie most exciting incident of that great of Samuel Tilden, and n Kelly's savage excoriation J. of nerve vas one of the most remarkable exhibitions on earth. Catcalls and rattling 1 courage ever witnessed for half an hour. Amid ipittoons drowned out Kelly awful storm he stood like an iron man; then, the _ tvd having worn itself out, he proceeded with his job Til- skinning the great New-Yorker. Next morning, . having been nominated the night before, Kelly gave lis adhesion and was received with boundless and up- rious applause by the same crowd which had hooted before. i so outrageously the day \. year or two after that Colonel Watterson came to lisiana, Pike County, Missouri, where I then lived, to ure. I introduced him to the audience, and after the ure I went with him to his hotel and sat up to wait b him for his midnight train, I told Colonel Wntter- that I had heard and greatly admired his speech as iporary chairman, to which he replied: Young man, I will tell you something that very few know pie about that speech, which may aid you in r career. I public was notified, unexpectedly, that I : to be the temporary chairman. I had scarcely time write my speech, and not enough to commit it to I did not nory. want to read it, as that would have =d the effect; and, moreover, my poor eyesight for- e to my trying read it So I had a man sit behind on the staffe and rear! ir tn mo ^nt- u,r ^ *. mmatecJ lor myseit a rule, as ioiiows: 11 i write a spcccn to be delivered to a large audience, I allow myself twice as much time for its delivery as it would take to read it intelligibly to one or two persons; and, if the audience is to be n very large one and out-of-doors, I allow three times as much time. It works out according to my rule. In fact, in speaking to an unusually large audience, the speaker is compelled not only to vest between sentences, but to enunciate each word with such distinctness, and so slowly, that much more time is consumed than in read- ing or speaking to u small company. In the campaign of 1 880 I had an amusing and fortu- nate experience in debate with an able Republican friend who did not understand the aforesaid rule.